Suswam escaped with Benue State money – Ortom

Written By Idoma Television on Thursday, June 4, 2015 | 3:55:00 AM

Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom said on Wednesday that he met an
empty treasury that was handed over to the new administration by
Governor Gabriel Suswam.

According to Ortom, the monthly allocation of the state has seriously
dwindled and that the internally generated revenue of the state is
completely zero.

He stated this in Government House Makurdi at the inauguration of the
SSG; Targema Takema, the Chief of Staff, Terwase Orbunde; Head of
Service, Iwanta Adaikwu; and special adviser on media and information
technology, Mr. Tahav Agerzua.

“I met an empty treasury which if it is qualified, it can be put at
10 times-minus zero. When the allocation in the month of May came, there
was an overdraft of about N1.9b and because of transition, the banks
have held the facility.

Now, the state is needing over 350m to offset the April salary. The
internally generated revenue is zero. This is because of backlog of
debts, bond, salary, pension and gratuity arrears, as well as obligation
to contractors,” Ortom stated.

Ortom however, insisted that his administration intend to partner
with the organized private sector to boost the economy of the state by
creating enabling environment for micro, small and medium scale
enterprises.